An
Employee's Short Story
from site visitor John Chaplin
I
worked for "Friary Motors" from Late
Spring 1959 until November 1961, immediately
after leaving school. I initially joined as
Assistant Storeman whilst the Company was
producing Vauxhall PA Estates. Following a fire
at the factory immediately after the Motor Show
of that year, I became Storeman, engaged on
issuing part kits for the production of the PAs.
The Company as far as I could fathom at the time
had 3 Directors of whom Friary Managing Director
Mr Jones was one, Mr Sutherland, who I understood
had previously owned the Aston Martin Marque
before selling to David Brown, and another
gentleman whose name escapes me, but whose main
interest was the Friary Motor Garage at Old
Windsor.
E.D.Abbotts and
Friary Motors had much in common, and I believe
may have been owned by the same people. The
designers of the PA Estate worked for Abbotts,
who were at that time producing both the Ford
Zephyr and Zodiac Estates. Both Companies used
Hiltons of Egham for panel production. I was
quite proud of our achievements with the PAs, and
remember we built one for the Queen, and for Lady
Macmillan, as well as one for the MD of General
Motors South Africa. The Queens car arrived in a
closed van, and left the same way. I believe its
mileage when it left us was less than 3 miles, as
distinct from most new motors which always had
about 70 on the clock, the mileage from Luton.
My
first job apart from assisting in stores was the
acceptance of vehicles, which I had to sign for.
I then inspected each car before it entered the
works making a note of any faults before entry.
Then with two 15 year olds I was responsible for
preparing the vehicle as a vacant space arrived
on the line. This involved removing boot, rear
window, petrol tank, rear lights and interior
trim, including the headlining and seats. Then
the front window was masked with brown paper with
a liftable panel for driving. Doors were covered
with vinyl shields, and a job card with details
of owner and job number attached to the brown
paper. Vehicles were then fitted with gallon cans
of petrol temporarily for internal movement, and
a small seat placed in the driving position. I
got quite used to driving cars from the small
seat looking through the windscreen panel, with
no sideways vision, and the doors permanently
ajar. All parts to be refitted were numbered and
stacked in racks. The rear squabs were
modified at this point, and stacked with the
other seats. The car then had its rear cross
member (between squab and tank) removed and
using a jig the internal rear panels were trimmed
to take the new parts. The roof was then cut
using Oxy acetylene as far back as the door
pillars. The new roof was argon arc butt welded.
I think our average production was 20 vehicles
per week.
At
various times when demand was low, we worked on
other things, notably Fords from Abbotts. Abbotts
roof was shorter than the PA roof, in that it
joined the original Ford roof roughly where the
rear window had been removed. Abbotts used
massive amounts of solder to shape this joint,
whereas we, if I remember correctly, continued
with Argon Arc, and used Holts Cataloy Paste for
shaping. We also started on the Ford Anglia
105Es, the first ones I remember as Raymond
Mays cars. I remember driving at least two with
"blowers" (superchargers) which made a
healthy roar.
As
by this time my stores had been relocated to the
top front of the building, I was not much
involved with the shop floor, I do not remember
much about their production. The Car was
basically a " Hatchback" rather than an
estate car. The rear door was made of fibreglass
and quite light. It was hinged from the roof
where the raked window used to go, and reached
back to the rear panel. I know the boot
locks and handle were re-used as were the
badges, but cannot remember if the window in
the door was new, or the re-used rear window. It
was a very nippy little car.
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